


you were temporary, i can't bear for you to leave

by queerofcups



Series: love love love (love love) [6]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 5+1 Things, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 12:22:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9607418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerofcups/pseuds/queerofcups
Summary: Five times Phil left Dan's bed + one time he didn't.





	1. Chapter 1

I.

“Dan!” Zooey says, pulling him into the apartment. “I’m so glad you made it!”

He follows her to the kitchen where most of the people are bunched up, making drinks and talking shit. Its early enough that there aren’t many people he doesn’t recognize, the flat just starting to fill up.

“Howell,” PJ says, waving him over. One of the few people Dan doesn’t recognize is standing next to PJ. He’s looking at Dan mildly, body turned toward PJ. From here Dan can tell that he’s almost the same height as Dan and he’s pale as all get out. He’s really _interesting_ looking, not attractive in any traditional sense, but Dan still has to drag his eyes away to look at PJ.

“Heya, Peej,” Dan says, making his way over. “Hi, PJ’s friend.”

“Dan,” PJ says, “This is Phil. AmazingPhil? He just moved from here from up north.”

“Oh!” Dan says, information clicking in place. “I’ve seen some of your videos. Really cool stuff.”

He’s not lying, he’s watched some of Phil’s longer, interactive videos and wondered why the dude wasn’t working in proper filmmaking. He was obviously skilled. He was also obvious in the way he gives Dan the once over before sticking his hand out.

“Same to you, Danisnotonfire,” he says and PJ wasn’t joking, he’s _very_ Northern. He’s also very into Dan, judging from the blatant once over he gives Dan. Dan brightens a little, intrigued.

“You watch my stuff?”

Phil nods, smiling. “For a long time, yeah. Your skills have grown like crazy.”

“Mine!” Dan says, leaning up against Zooey’s sink. “Mate, the thing you did in your last video with those trippy visual effects?”

Dan isn’t sure when PJ slipped away, doesn’t even notice until he and Phil have been talking for a few minutes, bouncing from their respective video channels to living in London, trading flirty comments and restaurant recommendations alike.

It’s not a surprise to Dan, or anyone at the party with eyes or ears, when he finds himself a few hours later, tucked into a dark corner of the party a little drunk with his tongue half way down Phil’s throat.

Phil’s hands are big and warm, low on Dan’s hips and Dan appreciates not having to crane his neck downward just to kiss him. They kiss for a little while longer, mouths sliding hot and slick together, Dan thinking idly that this might be a little unprofessional.

“Mm,” Dan says when Phil dips his head to gently bite at Dan’s neck. “That- that’s going to escalate things. Should you really be doing this in a room full of your new coworkers, more or less?”

Phil laughs, a little breathless and pulls away just a little, his pinky finger playing with the hem of Dan’s shirt. “Should I be doing this _with_ one of my new coworkers?”

Dan shrugs, pulls his hands out of Phil’s back-pockets. “Seems like we’re making a bit of a scene.” They weren’t really, most everyone here was a bit past wasted and none of them were unfamiliar with Dan finding a dark corner to hook up with someone. Half of them had been that someone at one time or another.

“Should we make a scene somewhere more private?” Phil asks, smiling.

It’s funny, Phil asks as causally and friendly as if he’d just asked Dan for lunch. Dan finds himself smiling back. “Sure. My place? I’m guessing yours isn’t unpacked yet.

Phil nods, grateful. “It’s a maze of boxes. I’d love to go over to yours, though.”  
  
*

They manage to keep their hands off each other the whole walk to Dan’s flat and even once they get in the door. It doesn’t get awkward, the way things have when Dan brings people over. He learns that Phil’s a semi-recent transplant from the North, having fought off moving to London as long as he could. He’s been in London for a year, his new apartment for only a month.

“Why haven’t I seen you around?” Dan asks, locking the door behind them.

Phil shrugs. “Bad break up before I moved. All the good energy I had went into making videos. I didn’t really want to like, make friends of anything. I’m luckey Zooey’s persistent. She’s been inviting me to things all year.”

Dan nods. “Lucky for both of us. That’s why I don’t really do relationships. It’d suck to not be able to go out for a year because of one person.”

Dan knows it’s probably an awkward thing to say, but he wants to be sure Phil understands what this is.

Phil smiles, a little sheepish and nods. “Yeah, it did suck. I’m not really interested in doing it again, not for a long while anyway.”

Dan grins and then walks closer, pulling Phil into his arms again. “So this is my apartment, I’ll give you a tour some time, but bedroom?”

Phil laughs, full throated and nods. “Sure thing.”

*

The sex is shockingly good.

Dan know’s sex. He’s had a lot of it, (good, bad and neutral) he knows what he’s into and he knows when he has chemistry with people.

He has a _lot_ of chemistry with Phil.

It’s close to 3am when they both finally collapse on Dan’s bed, breathing hard.

“Holy shit,” Dan says, staring at his ceiling, eyes a little wide. Phil makes a content noise beside him.

“D’you mind if I use your bathroom to clean up?” Phil asks, sitting up.

“Nah,” Dan says, still a little blissed out. He’s certain he’d lost some brain cells from that orgasm. “Mi casa, su casa. Towels are in the closet next to the bathroom, if you want to shower.”

Phil nods and gets up, grabbing his clothes from Dan’s bedroom floor.

Dan’s nearly asleep when he reappears fifteen minutes later.

“I’m heading out,” Phil says, quietly to not disturb Dan too much. Dan yawns and looks at him, nodding and smiling. “Uber’s downstairs.”

“Okay,” Dan says, sitting up. “I’ll see you around?”

“I hope so!” Phil says, waving a little, then walking out. Dan hears the door shut behind him.

He’s nearly asleep a few minutes later when he realizes he still needs to lock the door to his flat. He gets to his feet, grumbling a little. He’s a little sticky with drying come—its getting a little gross—and he still feels remarkably relaxed, still a little buzzed on booze and fantastic sex.

He’s locking the door when he realizes that Phil’s stolen one of the star sticky notes that live on his kitchen counter and scribbled his phone number on it. Dan peels it off and takes it back with him to program Phil into his phone.

II.

 _are u any good at mario kart_ , Dan texts a few days later. He’s been working on editing his latest video all day and his eyes are starting to blur from looking at the screen. He doesn’t have any real rules around one night stand, has made a fair number of friends from those sorts of encounters. But he does want to give Phil space, not look like he’s only interested in getting sex from him.

 _they don’t call me Piranha Plant Philly for nothing_ , Phil texts back. Dan grins. He likes this guy.

 _stop being friends with whoever calls u that immediately,_ Dan says, _come over tonight?_

 _i can’t just unfriend my mom like that, dan_ , Phil says, throwing in a few random emojis. _sure. 7?_

 _7_ , Dan confirms and asks after Phil’s pizza preferences

*

It turns out, Phil is not terrible at Mario Kart but Dan’s a lot better. They’ve been playing for a few hours now and Dan’s won the majority of the rounds, once while also eating a slice of pizza.

“I didn’t come here to be bullied,” Phil says, watching Toad cross the finish line 2nd once again.

“Ohhh poor Phil,” Dan teases. “Coming into my house expecting special treatment.”

Phil laughs. Dan’s learned that he sticks his tongue between his teeth when he laughs sometimes and that he got an affinity for slower cars and switching between Yoshi, Birdo and a Shy Guy.

“You’re a terrible host,” Phil says putting his controller down and turning his body toward Dan. “You should make it up to me.”

Dan scoffs but his controller down, too. “I do all this work to beat you at Mario Kart _and_ I have to have sex? Sex is a lot of work, Phil.”

Phil rolls his eyes but still leans over to kiss Dan, pushing him back against the couch.

Dan watches with interest as Phil gets up and resettles himself between Dan’s spread knees.

“Is this my prize for winning?” Dan can’t help but ask.

Phil shrugs and rubs his hands up and down Dan’s thighs. “That, or maybe I need a break from my ego being obliterated. Whatever makes you feel better, really.”

“Both is good,” Dan says, shifting his hips forward so Phil can pull his jeans down. “Both is good.”

*

At one point, in the middle of a blow job that’s definitely going in Dan’s top 25, he gasps out, “Who even are you?”

Phil pulls off, mouth shiny and wet. He licks his lips and Dan groans. “Piranha Plant Philly. We already talked about this.”

Dan groans and laughs. “No. I refuse to call you that during sex.”

Phil shrugs and dips his head back down. “I’m willing to respect that boundary.”

*

Dan offers to return the favor and Phil waves him off.

“I’ve got to get going, actually.” Phil says, after he’s been to the bathroom to clean up his face. Dan’s still sitting on the couch, feeling languid and boneless in the aftermath of Phil. “I’ve got a date tomorrow and I don’t want to be totally dead on my feet.”

Dan’s stomach jerks a little, which is weird. Maybe the pizza was dodgy? He nods and climbs to his feet, pulling his sweats back on properly. “I’ll owe you one, then, next time?”

Phil raises and eyebrow, smiling. “You already planning our next bootycall, Danisnotonfire?”

Dan laughs out loud. “Is it a booty call if I feed you and destroy you at video games first?”

“Nah,” Phil says, walking to the door. “I’d call that a date actually. But we’re just friends so I guess it’s just hanging out? Hanging out with orgasms?”

“Bringing a new definition to the term play date,” Dan says. “Later, Phil. Have a good date.”

Phil waves at Dan and then he’s gone, Dan locking the door behind him. Dan yawns a little and survey’s the mess of his longue, Mario Kart still on, pizza box and half empty glasses of ribena. He should have made Phil stay and clean up. Next time he’ll have to make sure Phil sleeps over or something so he can’t get out of helping clean up.

III.

“We should do a video together,” Phil says above Dan’s head. He’s leaning against the door to his bedroom, his pants around his ankles. Dan had come over in the name of housewarming/helping Phil finish unpacking, which they’d finally completed. Phil’s hips tasted of sweat when Dan had sucked on the knobby place where his hipbone protruded. A moment before, Phil had been groaning and tugging on Dan’s hair a little, nudging him where he wanted Dan to be.

“I’m pretty sure it’s too soon to be talking sex tapes,” Dan says casually, as if he hadn’t been _just_ about to blow Phil.

“Not like that,” Phil says and looks down at Dan. “We should collab. I haven’t done a collab in ages and I think our audiences already have some overlap.”

“Yeah, sure,” Dan says. He’s eager to get back to blowing Phil, and the idea of a collab has been stirring in the back of his mind anyway.

“Great!” Phil says. “Ok, you can get to it now.”

Dan rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything else, following Phil’s instructions.

*

“We’re even now,” Dan says, wiping his mouth and sitting back on his heels. Phil’s head is still thrown back against the door, his hand still gripping Dan’s hair.

“Are we keeping score?” Phil asks, looking down at Dan. It’s not a bad position, Dan thinks, looking up at Phil. Phil’s wonderful to look at from any angle, but Dan likes this one a lot, looking up at a content, slightly possessive Phil. He suddenly feels a little nervous and shifts a little so Phil’s hand falls away from his head.

He stands and clears his throat. “No, but I’d be winning if we were. I’ve gotta go, but text me about the collab ideas, yeah? We should definitely do that.”

Phil calls after him but Dan makes a quick retreat, nearly running out of the apartment.


	2. Chapter 2

IV.

The problem is that Dan’s got no common sense. Common sense would tell him that he and Phil need to slow down so he can deal with this pesky blooming of feelings. Common sense would tell him to sit down with himself and parse out his affection for Phil as a friend from his appreciation of their, still unfairly good, sex.

Common sense would tell him not to respond when, a few days after the hallway blow job incident, Phil texts him, _what do you call it when someone turns you on and then doesn’t go through with anything?_

Dan’s got no common sense and texts back _blue balls_?

Dan’s got no common sense, and opens the next message, which is, of course, a picture message.

Dan’s got no common sense and texts back, _come over_.

It’s not that late on a Saturday night, but late enough for Phil to have just finished with a date. Dan’s assuming the other person’s not still there if Phil’s texting him. A little jealous part of him hopes the person’s still there.

“You’re so dumb,” Dan whispers to himself and looks around his apartment, wondering if he should clean up. He realizes he’s planning to clean up for Phil and shakes himself. He and Phil have been friends for months now, have seen each other’s places worse than this.

*

Phil shows up forty-five minutes later, eyes bright and a grin playing on his lips.

“Date go well?” Dan asks. They don’t usually talk much about the dates Phil goes on. Dan doesn’t ask and Phil doesn’t offer much more than that they’re rarely with the same person and that he’s just trying to get back into dating.

Phil shrugs, “Date went weird. He was really hot but not very interesting?”

Dan nods and walks to the bedroom, “And not interested in sealing the deal.”

Phil laughs, following him. “Don’t call it that, what are we, teenagers?”

Dan turns and waggles his eyebrows. “We could be. You know my parents aren’t home right now.”

Phil pauses, looks considering. Heat flares up in Dan’s stomach.

“You know I’ve seen the naked dailybooths,” Phil says, considering. “You were pretty. You’ve grown a lot.”

Dan groans and keeps walking. “Those things fucking haunt me. I was a skinny kid during an era that appreciated skinny kids.”

“Noncomforming as can be,” Phil teases and hustles Dan to the bedroom. “Anyway, no teenagers. I just want you.”

Dan stomps down on the fluttering in his stomach that sets off and pulls his shirt off. “One Dan coming up, Mr. Lester.”

*

Phil doesn’t do anything to Dan that hasn’t been done before. Dan’s known a lot of mouths, a lot of hands. He’s touched and been touched by a lot of people. He’s even felt these fluttering feelings before, these spikes of jealousy.

The problem is he doesn’t want Phil to stop. After they have sex, they lay in Dan’s bed, talking about the video they’re planning. Phil’s made noises about leaving three times now and three times Dan’s redirected the conversation.

They aren’t touching. If they were clothed, it could be a platonic scene of two bros chilling on a bed. Except that one of the bros is dying to get his hands on the other. So maybe more like a scene out of some of the porn Dan’s seen.

“Hey,” Phil says, looking up at Dan. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Going to Youtube,” Dan thinks. “Might go shopping. Why?”

“Have lunch with me,” Phil says, pressing up on to his forearms. “Let’s show our friendship to the world.”

“Isn’t that what the collab is for,” Dan asks. The butterflies in his stomach are back and seem to have multiplied. “Are you asking me on a date, Phil Lester?”

“No!” Phil says, quickly, flushing. “No. I know that’s not something you’re interested in. I wouldn’t…”

Dan waves a hand. “I get it. I’m a bridge troll that doesn’t deserve a date. Yes, Phil, I’ll have platonic lunch with you.”

Phil looks like he wants to argue but shakes his head and rolls off the bed, yawning. “Besides, I have a date that night. Can’t have three dates in two days, someone might think I’m a bit of a slag.”

Dan scoffs. “Slut-shaming, Phil Lester? I’m appalled.”

Phil pulls on his jeans and looks at Dan, grinning. “Only joking. Everyone already thinks I’m a bit loose. Once, I hooked up with this guy at a work party after talking for like, an hour.”

Dan laughs, delighted. “And how’d that work out for you?”

Phil gives him a soft look, still smiling. “Pretty well, so far, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Dan says, smiling back at him. “It’s going pretty well.”

They have lunch, and it’s perfectly platonic (and Dan gets to make a couple jokes about their sushi being the platonic ideal of lunch). Dan drags Phil to the shops and nearly talks him into buying a see though shirt similar to one Dan owns, and then Phil drags them back to his apartment to play video games.

They’ve discovered that Phil is weirdly good at _Smash Bros._ and Dan responds to being beat soundly in several rounds with shoving, which turns into wrestling which turns, predictably, into making out.

Dan is sucking a sizeable mark onto Phil’s neck when an alarm on Phil’s phone goes off. He’s preparing to it when Phil groans and pushes at his shoulders a little.

“Dan, c’mon. I gotta get ready for my date.”

Dan sits up, looking at the marks he’s left. Most of them are small, little red bite marks on the side of Phil’s neck. The last one, just at the juncture of his neck and shoulder, is not small at all and there’s no way this date is going to miss that one. Dan wants to pin Phil down and get back to work, wants to tell Phil he doesn’t need to go on more dates, that he should date _Dan_. That he should stop rolling out of Dan’s bed after they fuck. That he should stay in Dan’s bed, and his life, for as long as he likes.

“Dan?” Phil asks. Dan shrugs and climbs off him, sits back on the couch.

“Go ahead.” Dan says, “Can I borrow your laptop? I wanted to make some edits to our script.”

“Sure,” Phil says and climbs off the floor, heading to the bathroom. “I told the guy I had to be back early to work on the video tonight. Do you wanna just stay here tonight and work on it when I get back?”

Dan thinks about what that’d look like to the guy Phil’s about to go out with. Both of them with marked up necks, Dan sitting in Phil’s apartment like he’s been here a million times. It’s fucked up, but the jealous parts of Dan purr with the idea, the chance for _somebody_ to think that Phil might be his.

“Yeah,” Dan calls down the hall. “I’ll do that.”

*

Phil’s date knocks on the door while Phil is shuffling around his bedroom, so Dan takes it upon himself to answer the door.

The date, ( _Kieran,_ Phil had told him over lunch) was fit enough, shorter than Dan but probably more built. Dan wondered if that’s something Phil was into, if he should be thinking about investing in a gym membership.

Kieran gave Dan an uncertain smile and asked, “Phil?”

Dan opens his mouth to answer when Phil answers behind him, “Nope. I’m Phil. That’s my friend Dan. Hi.”

Phil gently pushes Dan out of his way with a hand to his hip and smiles down at Kieran. Kieran looks from Phil to Dan eyebrow raised.

“Friend,” he says skeptically. Dan can see the moment his eyes fall on the mark he’s left on Phil’s neck and he holds his breath a little, waiting for Kieran to respond.

He’s more than a little disappointed when Kieran smiles at Phil, eyes sparkling a little and asks, “Are you ready to go then?”

“I am!” Phil says happily and turns to Dan. “You’re ok here, right?”

Dan nods, plastering a smile on. “Sure am. Just don’t stay out too late, young man.”

He wags a finger at Phil, who laughs. He turns to wave at Kieran just in time to catch a knowing look.

“I’ll have him back at a respectable hour,” Kieran says. Dan’s almost certain he’s making up the pity he sees on Kieran’s face.

And then Phil is gone and he’s alone in Phil’s apartment. Dan leans against the closed door, allowing himself a moment to imagine the date that’s about to happen, imagines Phil coming back and telling him how wonderful Kieran is, imagines Phil asking Dan to be his best man at his wedding to Kieran.

He putters around a little, playing another round of video games before settling down to fine tune the collab script he and Phil are planning to film soon. He grabs a pair of Phil’s headphones and jams them over his ears, clicking through Phil’s library to find something appropriately loud and distracting.

“You’ve done this to yourself,” he murmurs, moving around commas; Phil used way too many. “You fucked it all up with that date bullshit. Should have let him just ask you. But _no_ , we’ve got to be all Danny No-Boyfriend and here we are, just Danny, no boyfriend.”

Suddenly, the headphones are being pulled off and Dan’s shrieking, nearly dropping the computer in his haste to get away from the headphone stealing intruder that’s broken into Phil’s house.

Phil looks at him, mouth turned downward.

“ _Jesus_ , Phil,” Dan says, clutching his chest. His hearts beating a mile a minute, partly out of fear, partly out of realization that Phil’s probably heard his little monologue. “What are you doing back? How long have you been there?”

“Kieran sent me back. Said he felt bad about stealing my attention. You said you didn’t do dating,” Phil says.

“I- I did.” Dan stammers. “But that was before I. You. Oh. Fuck.”

Phil crosses his arms. “You should probably go.”

“What?” Dan squawks. “Isn’t this a good thing? People are usually happy when they find out people have a thing for them.”

“You lied to me, Dan.” Phil’s full on frowning now, and he’s taken a step back from the couch, precluding Dan reaching him across the couch. “You let me believe we were just having friendly sex. You should have told me when your feelings changed.”

“I didn’t know what to do,” Dan says, exasperated. “It’s been years since I’ve wanted to date someone. I’ve had sex with friends tons of times, this has never happened before.”

Phil says. “Okay. But I still want you to go. I need some time to be less angry.”

Dan wants to argue, but it’s hurting him to look at Phil right now. They’ve had squabbles before, over the months since they became friends, but he’s never seen Phil this closed off. He’s refusing to look directly at Dan.

“Ok,” Dan says, picking up his stuff. “But this is why I didn’t want to tell you. You’re important to me. Your friendship matters more than some stupid crush I have.”

Dan doesn’t stop to see the look on Phil’s face, just leaves the apartment before he can screw up more than he already has.

\+ I.

Phil doesn’t speak to him for a week. Dan hadn’t realized how much he’d been neglecting all his other friends until he can’t spend all his time talking to Phil. He also realizes that everyone else probably figured out he was into Phil long before he did, judging from the looks on his friends’ faces when he tells them what’s going on.

“It was supposed to be buddy fucking,” he whines to PJ, who’s facetimed him just to mock him face to screen. “I didn’t fall in love with _you_.”

“No,” PJ says lightly. He’s walking somewhere, the city passing by him in flashes. “But you were also an experiment in broadening my sexual horizons, so that would have been tragic for you.”

Dan rolls his eyes. PJ was the most successful of his straight boy experiences, honestly. “Yet somehow I managed to move on from all that sexual prowess of yours.”

“You also weren’t making out with me like, five seconds after we met. You don’t ignore chemistry like that.”

 _Are you home_?

Dan’s heart beats faster at the sight of Phil’s name.

“Dan?” PJ asks when Dan hasn’t responded for a minute.

“He texted me,” Dan says. “Fuck, Peej, he texted me, what do I do?”

“Text back?” PJ says, amused with Dan’s near hysterics. “What does he want? Is he proposing?”

“He wants to know if I’m home.” Dan says, texting Phil back, _yeah_.

“Oh man, lucky. Make up sex is the best.” PJ says. Dan catches an old woman looking over her shoulder at PJ, scandalized.

“I’m pretty sure he’s coming here to officially friend break up with me, but sure, we’ll go with your theory.” Dan looks down at his gross Sad Sweat Pants and the Jake sweatshirt he’d pilfered from Phil with false promises of returning it one day. “I should go change.”

“Probably, you look gross.” PJ says just as there’s a knock on the door.

“Fuck,” Dan hisses. “He’s here. I have to go.”

“Use plenty of lube!” PJ says cheerfully, like Dan hadn’t been the one to teach him that. Dan hangs up without a response and goes to open the door.

Phil’s eyes track him over, eyebrow raising once he sees the stolen sweatshirt.

“Can I come in?” he asks. He hasn’t asked that since the first or second time Dan invited him over, usually pushes past Dan to get into the flat.

“Yeah!” Dan says, too enthusiastic, and steps out of Phil’s way. “I’m- I’m really glad you texted.”

Phil still looks sort of sad, but not as upset as he’d been the last time they spoke. Dan hopes it means good things.

“I liked you as soon as I met you,” Phil says. Dan had always appreciated how direct Phil was. He appreciates it less now, when its knocking him off all his defenses.

“Ah,” Dan says, squirming. “I really was just fucking at first. Sorry?”

Phil shrugs. “That’s fine. I was up for whatever. That’s not what I’m upset about.”

“You’re upset because I didn’t tell you,” Dan says slowly, repeating Phil from the week before.

“We’re friends, Dan.” Phil says, and Dan suspects he’s riling himself back up. “You’re supposed to trust friends.”

“What was I supposed to say?” Dan asks. “Hey, I know you’re having the time of your life dating half the city, but could you stop that and just date me, even though I’ve turned you down multiple times now?”

“Yes,” Phil says, gesticulating. “That exactly. Minus the minor slut shaming. I’ve hardly dated half the city, and so what if I have.”

Dan shakes his head. “Nothing’s what. I don’t care. What kind of hypocrite would I be to care? I just don’t want you to date them now. I just want you to date me.”

Phil sighs. “I want to date you, too.”

It’s not like Dan hadn’t figured it out. A week without Phil had left him with a lot of time to think, and feel worse and worse about the way he’d been ignoring the hints Phil had been dropping.

“I know,” Dan says. “I’m sorry I ignored that.”

Phil crosses his arms, bites his bottom lip. “You owe me, like, a bunch of dates. Proper ones, not video games and pizza. I’ve got different standards for boyfriends.”

Dan bites at his own lips, fighting a smile. “Phil Lester, are you asking me out?”

“Nope,” Phil says, dropping his arms. He’s a whole different person when he’s relaxed, playful light coming to his eyes. “ _You’ve_ got to ask me, Howell.”

“If I ask you out,” Dan says slowly. “Does that mean you’re not going to put out until we go on the date? Is that one of your standards?”

“Hardly,” Phil scoffs. “I put out on first dates all the time. If they’ve earned it.”

“So, would you say this counts as a sort of…pre-date? Do you put out on pre-dates?” Dan stalks closer. Phil watches him, a grin playing at his lips. Soon, they’re pressed against each other, Dan wrapping his arms around Phil.

“I think this falls firmly in the bros with benefits category.” Phil says firmly, but still rests his arms around Dan’s neck, pulling him within kissing range.

“Well,” Dan says. “I’m pretty sure my new boyfriend won’t be allowing me to do that-“

Phil shrugs. “It can be an ongoing conversation.”

“-but I’ll make an exception this time,” Dan continues, tabling discussions of nonmonogamy for later.

Phil kisses him.

*

After, they lie in Dan’s bed, breathing. Dan thinks, idly, that he’s glad his walls are thick. He’s always been loud, but Phil makes him wild with it, makes him more vocal and less concerned with everyone else’s comfort. He’s comfortable now, a little sweaty and the little mouthmarks Phil has left ache so prettily.

Phil sits up and Dan’s gaze snaps over to him.

“No,” Dan says firmly, tugging him back down. “You’re staying here.”

Phil pauses, obviously thinking about his response. “I appreciate the symbolism, but I have to pee. I’ll come back.”

Dan thinks about it for a moment. “How badly do you have to go.”

Phil laughs and pulls away. “We can have the kink negotiation conversation after we finish the monogamy one.”

Dan grins, watching him leave to go to the bathroom.

True to his word, Phil climbs back in bed, shuffling up close to Dan. Dan yawns and arranges Phil until they’re both comfortable and settles in to fall asleep, sure Phil will be there later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did you know i have a tumblr?  
> come say hi at queerofcups.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> its a busy day at at the ofcups household, but i wanted to get something up today, hence the two parter.  
> title is from hayden james "just a lover" - i highly recommend the ponzo remix.


End file.
